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Jun 8, 2016

Murder Inc | Erwin's All Black Subaru WRX STI

Unlike it's rival, the Subaru still continues to produce new successors for its ever popular Subaru Impreza. The enthusiasm and following here in Malaysia is still going strong, but many are into the Subaru because of its presence in the world of rallying. So in normality, a lot of them would want their Subaru to look like a rally car. I have made quite a number of friends who are strong Subaru enthusiasts but I haven't really got a chance to see one that's a well tuned street car that has an identity that doesn't embody a rally car.

I met up with Erwin at a recent track day at Sepang. Before this, we have been Facebook friends for a while but never really had a chance to meet face to face. It happened when I met his car first at the pits in Sepang. What really got me was among most cars there, his engine looked pretty clean and tasteful. You can't help but to notice it especially with all the vibrant red Perrin Performance bits all over his engine bay. Quite a contrast if I have to say compared to his murdered out exterior.

As a pretty seasoned car guy, Erwin has been through his fair share of modified cars since the 2000s. He started of with an entry level Proton Satria hatchback which was a 1.3 liter trim. However, due to some overheating issues, he swapped out the old engine to a 1.5 liter block. But shortly afterwards, he found himself swapping it again with a 1.6 liter 4G92 Mivec motor in 2002. Two years later, he swapped it again for a 1.8 liter 4G93 GSR motor. It was nothing too crazy, just the basic bolt-ons for a naturally aspirated set up.

After he sold off the Satria in 2006, he thought he wanted to retire from the car scene so he bought himself a Proton Wira sedan. But ironically it only lasted for two weeks. That's when he installed an Evo 2 body kit and some 17 inch wheels. About a year and a half later, he upgraded to a later model Proton Perdana V6 which also didn't last long as a stock car. He started by swapping out the automatic transmission for a 5-speed manual. Before he knew it, he went pretty far with a built motor, port and polished heads and a piggyback engine management system.

In 2009, he and his wife welcomed the birth of their first daughter. So to adapt to the times, he sold off his Proton Perdana and settled for a Mitsubishi Lancer GT as a family car. But his urge to modify his car apparently didn't subside but he couldn't do much with the Lancer. All that was done was an ECU reflash, an intake and an exhaust system. It seems there was no sign of him from retiring.

So at the dawn of 2013, he started to discuss with his wife about some possible options. He still wanted to modify cars but it had to have four doors and enough trunk space for the family. At least, it would be able to fit two baby strollers. The first car that came to mind was a Honda Civic Type R but he found that the ride was too stiff. He also thought of the Evo 10 but the trunk space was not sufficient enough. That's when he took a look at the Subaru WRX STI. It was 2 liter turbocharged hatchback with pretty huge trunk space. It was clear that this was the obvious choice for Erwin. So in February 2013, he purchased his WRX STI hatchback.

After a few good years with the car, he started to encounter some issues with the motor. He found that the third cylinder was misfiring. As a particular person when it comes to tuning, Erwin did a bit of diagnostics to the motor. The issues became worse. So he took it to the workshop and did a compression test. It was found that there was no compression in the third cylinder. So in May 2015, he took the STI to AE Parts & Services to rebuild the EJ20 motor. That's when decided to rebuild the motor with aftermarket parts so that the EJ20 becomes more reliable and more capable to perform.

The EJ was fitted with a set of 93mm Mahle Pistons with an EJ25 STI crankshaft and stock EJ20 STI conrods. AE also fitted in a set of Tomei Procams and valve springs on the cylinder heads. The built motor was fitted with a Garrett GT3071 turbine which is mounted in the stock position. The set up was completed with a stock ECU reflash from Airboy Tuning with Ecuflash and Romraider Logger. The motor currently puts out an estimated horsepower of 340 at 1.6 bars of boost.

When it comes to the exterior, Erwin didn't want to follow the trend of sticking tuner decals or have the normal Subaru Rally Team livery on the side of his car. He preferred to keep his car clean and almost stock looking. So he kept his exterior black and fitted the STI with black 18 inch SSR Type F wheels giving the car a 'murdered out' look. Other subtle changes on his exterior are pretty minor and unnoticeable like his S206 side under board and an R206 rear diffuser. Another example that shows cars look best when they are clean.

Even though his STI can be considered a very well built car, Erwin still continues to fine tune the performance of his car. Nowadays, the STI has became his daily driver from home to his workplace. It's during those long drives, that's when does his own daily logging during his free time. Just to show that how passionate he is when it comes to constantly improving the performance of his car. That's the type of enthusiasm one needs especially when it comes to building something reliable and capable to perform in any condition.